Cloud Disaster Recovery (Cloud DR)

cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) - Cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) is a component of a disaster recovery plan that involves maintaining copies of enterprise data in a cloud storage environment as a security measure.

Some enterprises that are leery of putting primary storage in the cloud are more likely to use cloud-based backup or disaster recovery. There are a number of benefits that make cloud DR appealing, mostly related to cost savings. The utility storage model is affordable and the need for other resources -- such as IT infrastructure data center space – is much reduced. Taken in combination, those savings mean that smaller enterprises can implement disaster recovery plans that would have been impossible otherwise.

However, there are also important issues to consider before adopting cloud-based DR. At the provider’s end, for example, you need to ensure that data will be securely transferred and users authenticated properly. On your end, you need to ensure that should a disaster actually occur, you’ll have the bandwidth and network capacity necessary to redirect users to the cloud. Your disaster recovery plan should also include details of how you’ll restore data.

See also: cloud backup, online backup, Storage as a Service (SaaS), cloud storage SLA

Related glossary terms: cloud storage service, public cloud storage, cloud insurance, cloud backup (online backup), cloud storage encryption, cloud storage SLA, cloud seeding

[Category=Data Management ]

Source: WhatIs.com, 12 July 2013 09:12:17, http://whatis.techtarget.com/glossary/Data-and-Data-Management